University Statue Removed After Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball" Parodies

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This sculpture at Grand Valley State University had to be taken down due to safety concerns over students swinging on it while making parodies of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" video.

Students at Grand Valley State University were having a ball making parodies of the Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball" music video until it was removed on Sept. 17.

Using a campus pendulum statue that resembles the wrecking ball that a naked Cyrus swings on in the video, students made and uploaded similar videos online. In one parody that has gone viral, a nude male student swings on the statue singing lyrics from the pop hit.

In an online statement, the school cited "the recent increase in popularity of riding the pendulum art piece" as the reason for taking the statue down.

After the statue was removed "workers discovered that the cable was indeed fraying," according to the statement.

Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Tim Thimmesch said the statue is currently in storage but that the university hopes "the pendulum can be reinstalled at that location or another suitable location on campus."

Students were outraged by the decision to remove the statue and gathered in protest the night it was removed chanting "Wrecking Ball! Wrecking Ball!," according to the New York Post.

The statue had been a fixture outside of Padnos Hall of Science since it was installed in 1995.

Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" has soared to the No. 1 spot on Billboard's charts and is also the top song on iTunes and Spotify. The music video notched more than 100 million views in six days after coming out on Sept. 9, according to E!